Joe Lieberman

Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman (24 February 1942-) was a US Senator from Connecticut (D) from 3 January 1989 to 3 January 2013, succeeding Lowell Weicker and preceding Chris Murphy. Lieberman was known to be a centrist and a maverick within his party, which did not renominate him for the Senate in 2006; he won on an independent ticket, and went on to endorse Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008. However, he endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

Biography
Joe Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1942 to a Jewish family, and he worked as a lawyer in New Haven before being elected to the Connecticut Senate in 1970 as a Democrat. In 1980, he lost an election bid for the US House of Representatives during the Reagan-led nationwide Republican electoral sweep, but he served as Connecticut Attorney General from 1983 to 1989, after he was elected to the US Senate. In 2000, he was Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore's running mate, but the ticket was narrowly defeated by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney due to the narrow loss in Florida. Lieberman was known to be more conservative than some Republicans, strongly supporting the Iraq War, supporting both free trade and labor unionism, supporting Democrat domestic policies, and supporting Republican foreign and defense policies. Lieberman was instrumental in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the sponsoring of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the removal of the public option for Obamacare. In 2006, his controversial views led to his loss in the Democratic senatorial primary, but he mounted an independent campaign and won in a rare instance of an independent winning a US statewide election. In 2008, he endorsed the Republican John McCain for President, and he retired in 2013. In 2016, he endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a fellow centrist.